


That's The Way You Learn To Cope

by afteriwake



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Collection, Gen, Introspection, Pre-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 18:43:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5344565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The denizens of Storybrooke have had their ups and downs. They've had their good times and their bads. And the thoughts they've had on things in their lives, some of great importance and some of no consequence at all, show that no matter what, they'll continue to move forward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's The Way You Learn To Cope

**Author's Note:**

> These are a collection of drabbles I wrote prior to season 3 of the show (which is when I lost access to a television for a long time and stopped watching and eventually fell out of the fandom). They're just answers I wrote for challenges in a challenge community I was in during season 2. Title comes from "Into The Woods" from Stephen Sondheim.

  
**Power Corrupts**  
_Rumpilstilskin_   


He knew there was a delicate balance in power. Those who had it would do anything to keep it; those who didn't have it and wanted it would do anything to get it. He had been one of the latter, and while his intentions had been good he now had a tenuous relationship with his son. His son wanted him to be rid of the power, but Rumpilstilskin knew if he lost it they would be vulnerable, and his son didn't understand that.

Still, he knew what his son wanted, and he made the promise that if his son could find a way to free him from the power without killing him he would take it. And he probably had all the intention of keeping that promise, but when it came down to the actual decision, he chose power and lost his son in the process. His family, his reason for getting the power in the first place...it was gone. And so he let the power consume him, and this was his true punishment and curse.

  
**A Deep Abiding Happiness**  
_Regina Mills_   


She had never thought she would have this. It isn’t perfect; after all, she has to share with Emma and her family, but for the first time since the curse was broken things feel right. They feel good. Henry lived with her on the weekdays, spent his weekends with Emma and Snow and Charming, though they included her in anything they did as a family, including dinner every Sunday. Now that Snow and Emma were back, Henry was happy, and a happy Henry made for a happy Regina.

It helped that she and Charming had made their peace in the time Snow and Emma had been gone. Henry loved them all, even when she had thought he would never love her again. After all, she was the Evil Queen. But a visit from Cora and the magical fight to end all magical fights had shown Henry that there were some things more important than magic, than power, than revenge. He was certainly more important. He would always be her son, just as much as he was Emma’s. He would always be family, even if he had to be shared with others.

And tonight, as she sat on his bed, listening to him tell her all the bits about his day that he hadn’t told her before he did his homework or during dinner, she felt completely at peace. This was the happiness she had longed for, she realized as he wound down and settled into bed, shutting his eyes. And as she pressed her lips gently on his forehead she wondered just what she had done to get so lucky.

  
**Attempts At Apologies**  
_August Booth_   


_There is a book, a book full of stories, stories that seem familiar yet different. It’s the stories of the people of my land, the Enchanted Forest. And everyone has a story in it. Everyone except me, that is. My story isn’t worth being in there. But I will share it anyway._

_I am Pinocchio. I am the wooden boy made real, the one who kindly Geppetto looked at as a real son. I am the one who escaped the curse, the one sent to take care of the Savior. I failed in my duty. I ran away, a coward, and I left the Savior on her own. I was scared, you might say, or I was young. Those are valid excuses, but that’s all they are: excuses. The truth is I wanted to run away from it all. I wanted to live a life of my own choosing. And that makes me the biggest coward in the story, and is the reason I have left my own story out._

_And I am sorry._

August looked at what he’d written and sighed. He crumpled up the sheet of paper and tossed it into the overflowing wastebasket next to his desk. It was no use. Emma didn’t believe. She was never going to believe. And going into his life story without proof was going to sound preposterous to her. He needed proof. He needed to show her it was all true, every word in her son’s book. But he didn’t know how to show her, until he got the idea to add his own story to the book. Maybe, just maybe, if he got her son to believe first he could convince her. So once again he set pen to paper and began to write, to put the truth down on paper of the story of Pinocchio.

  
**Boots Were Made For Loving**  
_Emma Swan_   


She loved nothing more than finding a good pair of boots. Emma didn’t know what it was about boots that she loved so much, but when it came to what type of shoes she had to wear she preferred boots to everything else. But she was picky: the heel couldn’t be too high, they had to be real leather (not that fake pleather crap), and they had to be functional. Or at least the boots she wore most of the time had to fit those guidelines.

She did have other boots, fancy boots that she wore when she felt like being a little dressier. She liked them occasionally, because in her old life as a bondswoman and her new life as a Sheriff the fancy boots were just a tad too impractical. So those only came out when she decided to not be as practical, and only when she knew she wasn’t going to be doing a lot of running around.

And she’d admit a guy in boots caught her attention more than a guy in loafers or sneakers or sandals. Boots on a man spoke volumes, said he was rugged and manly, said he didn’t mind getting a little dirty if needed. So when she saw boots on a guy he instantly got just a little more interesting in her book, a little more noteworthy. What could she saw? She thought boots were sexy, and if a man wore boots then he was a little more worthy of her time.

  
**Inspiring The Next Generation**  
_Mary Margaret_   


Teaching was a gift. She was good at it, good at molding these young minds into something that used all the potential they had for greatness. She loved planning her lessons, coming up with a curriculum and then actually teaching it to her students. And of all her students, her favorite was Henry, if she had to admit she had a favorite. He was bright, inquisitive and curious, all the best traits of a good student. She saw in him the same love of learning she had.

She loved all her students, though, and other than giving Henry the book on fairytales she tried her best to not show favoritism. She treated each student as though they were unique and special, and while she knew teachers around the United States and probably around the world did the same, in the back of her mind she had the feeling her students actually were unique. It was some niggling thought in the back of her mind, just a feeling she had that there was something about Storybrooke’s children that was not the same as other places.

But regardless of her nagging thoughts and feelings, she carried on being the best teacher she could be, showing the children the wonders of the world, broadening their minds and encouraging them to reach to the highest heights and go for their dreams. After all, special or not, all children should be treasured and safe, happy and whole, and she wanted to make sure that they had at least one place they could go to, even if it was just her classroom.

  
**Family Legacy**  
_Henry Mills_   


It was apparent that badass ran in the Charming family. How could it not? After all, his grandfather had taken down a dragon and planted a potion in another, his grandmother had been a thief who had taken on the trolls and won, and his mother had faced a dragon of her own, the same one her father had put the potion inside, and killed her underneath the library. Henry was glad to be related to such an awesome family.

He wondered when he would get to be as awesome as the people he was related to. He knew that he was young, but that didn’t stop other people in his book. Just look at Hansel and Gretel! Heck, he went to school with them, heard firsthand how they’d defeated the blind witch. And he wanted to be like that, too, be awesome and brave and have adventures. He wanted to be just as badass as the people he was related to.

It was, surprisingly, his adoptive mother who sat him down and explained just how special he was. He didn’t need to be reckless and brave to be a hero. He was confused and asked what she meant, and so she told him a few of the stories that hadn’t been in the book about his grandparents, and he understood better. Sometimes it was good to be brave, and sometimes adventures could be fun, but sometimes you would do stupid things and get out by the skin of your teeth, and that wasn’t a good way to live. And then, he understood, and began to look at his lineage as something he should be proud of, but not in a hurry to imitate. After all, he was still young, and who knew what adventures lay in store for him?

  
**Doing What’s Right**  
_Regina Mills_   


She was going to try, up to her dying breath, to redeem herself. She wasn’t going to do it for anyone other than Henry, and perhaps for herself. Redemption was something she had never considered, not the entire time she’d been in Storybrooke, not the entire time she’d been getting rid of Emma, not even as she said good-bye to her son after true love had broken the curse. It wasn’t until she had gotten magic back, taken Henry by force and seen just how he looked at her. She had looked at her mother that way before, in fear and awe, and then Henry told her how he really felt.

It was that conversation that was a slap to the face, a punch to the gut. It was the conversation she had wanted to have with her mother so many times but she knew if she had something worse would have happened. She did not want to be her mother; she had dim memories of the young woman she had been, of the happy times, of the heartbroken mess she had become. She did not want her son to go through that, because she loved her son exactly as he was, and really did not want him to go down the same road she had.

So she let him go. It hurt, it hurt more than Henry could ever imagine, but it was the right thing to do. By working hard to redeem herself and earning back Henry’s love instead of forcing him to stay through fear, she would break the cycle her mother started. She would prove, once and for all, that she was a better woman than her mother.


End file.
